62nd of Season of Earth, 56th year of the 32nd imperial era

"I believe I told you to sleep or meditate, not to go for a walk around the town and come back," Blackfist grumbled instead of a greeting as Newt entered his tea parlor.

"I realized I have failed to introduce myself." Newt bowed. "Newstar Salamandra."

"Greetings Newstar, I am Dandelion without a surname. People call me Blackfist, but I cannot fathom the reason - it turns a steel-like dark gray." Blackfist smiled, pointing at the chair with his cup. "Come, have some tea."

"Why tea?" Newt sat and accepted the cup.

"People find it difficult to fight when someone's giving them a tasty, high-quality beverage. I think tea and wine will help me walk my path in the future."

Newt considered the matter, and found he too wouldn't just attack someone offering him food and drink unless they were mortal enemies.

"You should consider crescents," Newt said, and to his surprise, Blackfist reacted very energetically.

"I did." The answer came a tad too loud. "But I am afraid I will need something of higher quality."

Newt inclined his head, staring at the man blankly. He enjoyed the treat and wouldn't have minded some more, but he wasn't sure how well it would go with tea, so he changed the subject.

"You mentioned you visited the library. Have you read anything about heart demons?" On his way back, he had decided to test Blackfist's knowledge, and he had discussed heart demons extensively with his tutor after getting out of the mine, both to confirm Magmin wasn't one, and to make sure they wouldn't come back.

"Plenty."

"I," he hesitated, afraid the townlord would see through his test, but decided he had nothing to lose, "am interested in ways of resolving them without conflict."

"A wise choice." Blackfist steepled his fingers. "But you should make advancement a priority over perfectly resolving your heart demons. Some can be resolved through peaceful means, others cannot, and it all depends on you. And if you cannot get rid of them peacefully, violence is always a reliable alternative, even if the heart demons will probably reform in the next realm, but at least you would have denied their evolution."

There was a brief pause before the townlord continued. "What troubles you exactly?"

Nothing troubled Newt, but he wanted to check the man's knowledge on the subject. "Well, do you have any advice?"

"As I said, I have plenty, but it would be more efficient if you gave me a detailed description of your heart demons, but I guess that is not happening." Newt shook his head, and Blackfist barely held back a frustrated sigh.

"The texts I read agree that the most common heart demon is fear. If you still fear the object from which the heart demon was born, overcoming your fear has a slim chance of resolving the heart demon. I see fear is not interesting. I will move on.

"The next most common heart demon is regret, which awakened can also resolve peacefully. For instance, if you regret not having something, acquiring it and seeing it is absolutely irrelevant in your life will dispel the heart demon."

Newt didn't really regret not owning something. It would have been nice if his family were rich, if they were all at the tenth realm with servants at the seventh, but such opulence was beyond his wildest imagination, not something he regretted not having.

"If you have slain someone by accident, you can honor them with a proper burial, trying to make it up to their family, or performing good deeds in their name. Unfortunately, you are not trying to exorcize a ghost, but satisfy your own conscience and resolve the guilt weighing on your heart. It is vital to make peace with yourself, and the deceased has little impact on the process."

Newt considered the words. Victor coming back as a heart demon, again, would have been a horrible experience.

Maybe I could do those things anyway. I mean, we already buried Victor like a family member, not a pariah, and I planned to take care of his children, so I guess that should be that?

"The next common one for young men is jealousy or unrequited love. But that is irrelevant to you now. Young men also often have a problem with the size of their p—" Newt's eyes went wide while Blackfist's lips drew into a grin. "But you naturally do not suffer from such base worries.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Another common heart demon is a rival," Victor immediately came to Newt's mind. He certainly had his father as a heart demon blocking his path forward. The stronger, more talented older brother must have put great pressure on a young man who didn't even want to meddle with mana and magic.

As Newt realized yet another detail about his dead uncle, Blackfist kept going. "Someone we envy or who is better than us, or has something we think they do not deserve, can twist our hearts enough to form a heart demon. The best way to resolve this heart demon is to challenge the person in question and beat them at the discipline which caused the heart demon. If you envy someone's skill at alchemy, bashing their brains out with a hammer will not make the heart demon go away. It will lock it in place because you could not and never will be able to defeat your nemesis in the discipline which really matters to you."

Blackfist's words made Newt think. Was his uncle perhaps trying to get rid of his heart demon? Did it backfire? Was that the reason he seemingly gave up on everything, or was it just coincidence?

"Any other questions?" Blackfist snapped Newt out of his thoughts.

He could have asked about whether the heart demons he had defeated would return, but he already knew the answer, and Blackfist really seemed knowledgeable on the subject. More so than Newt's tutor.

He looked around, with no good questions to ask, when he noticed the steam rising from his cup.

"How does the tea stay warm?" he said, trying to throw Blackfist off balance, but the man did not blink before answering.

"Enchanted." He pointed at the teapot. "I bought it at the scribes' guild for five first realm gems. It keeps the water slightly below boiling point, perfect for tea. I thought it a worthwhile investment for the occasion."

"Is every townlord like you?" Newt asked, and Blackfist guffawed, slamming his empty cup against the table.

"I dearly hope not. I have not met them in person, but based on the information I bought on them, their realms are around mine. They might not represent a valid sample, but I do not think townlords closer to the capital are much better. It is, for the most part, a position for those who had given up on advancing."

Newt frowned and decided to parse Blackfist's answer as 'no.' "Why do you hope they aren't like you? Wouldn't it be good if everyone was reasonable and willing to discuss everything?"

Blackfist moved for the teapot to refill Newt's empty cup, but the younger man shook his head before Blackfist eased himself back into his seat.

"You misunderstand amiability. If a mosquito buzzes around your head while you are trying to sleep at night, what do you do?"

Newt was certain there was a trick behind such an obvious question, but decided to play along.

"I swat it, or try to drive it away."

Blackfist nodded as if that was the logical answer, then asked another question, "And what do you do if a fully evolved tenth realm dreadwalker runs towards your home? Assuming you have nobody to save and the building is empty."

Newt considered the question for a few moments while Blackfist calmly sipped his tea.

"I would run away. Our ancestral home is priceless, but jumping in front of a manabeast eight realms above me is suicide."

"Even two realms' difference is suicide." Blackfist nodded again. "If a non-awakened came into my home because of a girl Hardstone stole, I would first politely ask them to leave, and if they caused a scene, I would swat them dead before having a talk with Hardstone about why in a world half-filled with women, he had to go looking for someone else's woman.

"If a tenth realm exalt from a royal or ducal family came and told me Hardstone had dishonored his great-granddaughter or worse, his wife, I would disembowel and behead Hardstone even before the monster in question asked me to do it."

Newt gasped, but Blackfist raised his hand. "In the first scenario, the non-awakened has vindication, but lacks excuses and survival instincts, thus becoming extinct. In the second scenario, Hardstone lacks survival instincts, and I treat him fairly. You, however, are neither a powerless non-awakened, nor a powerhouse who can exterminate me and my whole family with a casual sneeze. I would prefer to find a peaceful solution, which would allow us both to thrive, rather than either of us risking extinction.

"That is amiability," Blackfist concluded, and Newt gazed at him in silence.

I don't think that is amiability.

"So you try to be reasonable with those of equal or lower standing, but offer your son's head to someone stronger to appease them?"

Blackfist smirked. "First of all, if it's only a stolen girlfriend without foul play, I would try to speak up on Hardstone's behalf, but in the scenario I mentioned, I would kill him for my own reasons. If he was stupid enough to bring such a calamity upon his entire household over a woman, he might do it again and again. Better nip that possibility in the bud, and remain safe for years, than to worry about an eventual doom which he would summon one day."

Finally, Newt remembered Blackfist was a former bandit, and that he was no stranger to murder.

"Do not look at me so appalled," Blackfist grumbled, still smiling. "Hardstone's failure to control his lower half is my failure as a parent and his failure as a person. If he were a child, I would shoulder most of the blame, but he is nearly forty years old, an age when most humans would be expected to bear the consequences of their own actions, unless they are influential."

Blackfist drew a deep breath and ran his fingers through his unusually short hair. "You do not understand what I am talking about, but that is all right. You are a child. Several years on the road will sharpen and temper your mind. Limited amounts of suffering are good for you."

The frustrated gaze made Newt nervous, so he poured himself a cup and tried to change the subject without raising his gaze.

"Thank you for your advice. Do you, by any chance, have insight on realm shaping? My primary elements are earth and fire."

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